Page 3819 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 29 October 2014

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It goes on to say that, like the ACT, the Northern Territory is above the average. However, the underlying reason is not that both are relatively small jurisdictions, as the next two smallest—Tasmania and South Australia—are at the other end of the scale. I am going to get some advice from Deloitte about how they get to that figure.

Mr Barr: It would be a high level of public sector employment.

MR SMYTH: I am sure the public sector adds to it. But it shows that the red tape here is enormous, and we really need to make genuine efforts to remove that challenge for small business in particular.

This is an important motion. As I have said many times in this place, I think Canberra is a great place to live. I think it has enormous potential. I do not think we are harnessing that potential, and we are not harnessing that potential when you have got a Treasurer who thinks it is okay because the deficits are temporary because the federal government will return to normal levels of spending and, therefore, everything will be hunky-dory. If you have got that sort of attitude, we can blithely go along and be the good fellows and say, “Yes, well done, government,” or you can throw out the challenge and ask, “What are you genuinely doing to diversify the economy and when will we see those results?”

As I have said many times, when we left office, 60 per cent of jobs were in the private sector. It is now 50 per cent. The real opportunity there is to grow the private sector in this town, but not to the detriment of the public sector. The federal government will dictate that in the main. We know that 87 per cent of the current round of job cuts were put there by the Labor Party, something the Treasurer never resisted. It is kind of ironic to have him putting in paragraph (2)(d) to encourage the commonwealth to reverse its cuts to the Australian public service. We never saw a motion like that when Labor was at the helm federally. That says it all about this Treasurer—he is willing to stick it to federal Liberal but he would never stick it to federal Labor, unlike those on this side of the house. We will take on all comers to defend the jobs of the ACT.

Question put:

That the amendment be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

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